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Wednesday, 02 January 2013

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Our Christmas was lovely - J was asleep at a decent hour on Christmas Eve, and the boys got up at 7.30 Christmas morning (we were woken up by noisy neighbours before 7am last year!) We spent the day at my in-laws and had a very relaxed day. New Years eve was very low key - W went to his friend's for a sleepover but I actually wasn't very well (no, not alcohol induced!) and spent most of the night up, and then most of New Years day in bed! Feeling much better now though, so I thought I would pop in to say hello. I can at last show you a quilt that I had made but was unable to show as it was for my mum and she does sometimes read this blog.

This was made using a jelly roll of Athill Range by Cabbages & Roses, and some off-white sashing fabric (I forget if it was Kona or Klona!) Bound with some of the spare jellyroll strips. I machine quilted it using both straight lines and the elongated zig-zag stitch.

I was really pleased with how it turned out and, more to the point, mum was really pleased with it too! With the start of the new year I'm hoping to be able to find a better balance and find a little more time for sewing and blogging. I've made a start piecing a backing for the Mama Said Sew quilt, using a mish mash of half yard and FQ pieces from the stash, so once I have ordered the batting I will be able to get on with getting that one completed. I'm thinking that I might hand quilt this one, I haven't hand quilted for a while and I think it will be nice to have a "slow" project to keep me going. Which reminds, me, must order some more perle cotton...

Monday, 26 November 2012

Well, the piecing of the quilt top, that is. Obviously it will be some time before this turns into a finished quilt - certainly not before Christmas - as I have no batting, backing or binding for this one!

I'm pleased with how it looks, but I haven't decided yet whether to hand or machine quilt it. The last few big quilts I've made have all been machine quilted, so maybe it's time I got back to some slow stitching.

Now that this is done, I have no other sewing lined up to get working on, although I did receive a wonderful surprise last week when I discovered that I had won Florence's giveaway of a bundle of FQs from Dragonfly Fabrics! I don't often enter giveaways, I usually think "what's the point, I'll never win", so I nearly fell off my chair when I saw that I had won this one! And my prize bundle arrived super quick on Saturday morning, so I have been glancing at it frequently and wondering what to do with it?

I'm thinking some sort of table linens, napkins or place mats perhaps? What would you do with them?

Tuesday, 06 November 2012

...about what to do with my lovely layercake of Mama Said Sew fabric. I want to make a quilt, but I don't know what pattern to use. I put a call out on Twitter and Lynne suggested her Hexagon Park pattern, which is gorgeous, but I think I want something even simpler than that. I don't really want to use any sashing and I want something really easy - not have to think too hard about easy - but more than just sewing the squares together as they are. I found a couple of ideas on Pinterest here and here, and I'm also thinking that maybe pinwheels might look quite cool... but what do you guys think? Any suggestions?

Friday, 26 October 2012

What better thing to help cheer you up on a cold and grey day than a pretty little mini stack of fabrics?

I treated myself to this little selection from Eternal Maker. Oh, and I bought the layer cake too - and it just arrived (our postman seems to get later and later!) but is too dark to photograph now - and I am so glad I did, it's gorgeous!

Monday, 22 October 2012

I love books. I am the child of two librarians, so I grew up surrounded by them, and both of my boys had books read to them pretty much from the moment they were born (and I still read to J on a daily basis). Despite having a fancy, new tablet thingy, I will not be purchasing books to read on it, as I much prefer the look and feel of holding a real book in my hands. Since we started homeschooling, I have been making much greater use of our local library, not just for books for J but also for me - I very quickly realised that it would just be too expensive for me to purchase every book I wanted to read about homeschooling/Aspergers/ADHD etc, not to mention craft books! So we have been making good use of the reservation facility, even if it does sometimes mean waiting months to get our turn! One such book that I have waited several months for is Sunday Morning Quilts, which I finally got my hands on today. From the very quick flick through that I've had so far, I think it is probably a book that I wouldn't mind owning, there are some really lovely scrappy quilts in there, so it may be going on my Christmas list. It has certainly had my fingers itching to start playing with fabric again! I had a quick rummage through my fabric cupboard the other day, and just seeing all those pretty fabrics that I had forgotten I had did rather have the same effect! I really ought to be trying to use up some of it. I've been extremely good lately, not buying any fabric unneccessarily, but I am so, so tempted to buy myself a layer cake of Mama Said Sew fabric - I really don't need it, but it's so pretty! What should I do?

Friday, 31 August 2012

The quilting of the space invader quilt has begun. Actually, I'm probably about 3/4 done! I got it basted last week with the help of my lovely friend Helen, but then of course I had to decide how to quilt it. In the end, I went for simplicity - those wonky straight lines again! To be honest, I have a hard enough time manoevering the quilt through the machine just on the straight lines, so it was unlikely that I would try anything else!

A teeny little fabric purchase. A panel of handprinted fabric from The Little House Martin, as seen on Lu's blog. I couldn't resist, and Fanny/Leanne sweetly included an adorable little house ornament, as well as some little samples of her other prints. The panel is so lovely, I'm not sure I can bear to cut into it, so I'm thinking of turning it into a very simple but beautiful little table mat.

Some more sewing! We are off to a wedding tomorrow, and I had stupidly left everything to the last minute. I have managed to cobble together an outfit &found a lovely cream linen scarf but had no suitable bag to match. However, I did manage to find a piece of cream linen in the stash that was the perfect match, so I set about making myself a little clutch bag. It's actually just a zippered pouch, but I had been inspired by several pleated bags seen on Pinterest so decided to give it a go, and I don't think it turned out too badly. Phew!

Monday, 06 August 2012

Joe's space invaders quilt top is done! After I showed you my progress last time, I just needed to add a little length to the quilt, and I wanted to somehow incorporate the fat quarter of space invader fabric that inspired the quilt in the first place. I did think about just using it in the backing, but when I suggested to Joe that I could put little squares of it into the solid background fabric, he seemed very happy to go with that idea.

Not sure if you can really see but the rows of teeny space invaders do look a bit squiffy - they just didn't see to be printed on the fabric straight and I didn't want to risk the squares all wobbling if I cut off the grain. But I'm not too worried about it, and Joe certainly didn't mind - he declared it "Awesome!"

Now of course I have to decide on backing. I don't have enough yardage so I am trying to decide whether to just buy some extra wide dots (from here) or to piece the backing. I still have an FQ of pacman fabric that I bought at the same time as the space invaders, plus I ordered another little bundle of FQs from this new-to-me fabric shop.

Computer keyboards, circuit boards and some cool dots all tie in with the theme of the quilt so, the question is, what do you think? I would still need to buy a bit of yardage anyway so, pieced, computer themed backing or just the extra wide dots?

And, believe it or not, but the sewing didn't end there! I've also been getting on with my scrappy quilt project. If you remember, I had started sashing the blocks with some pomegranate Klona cotton, but I ran out of that colour so sashed the last 3 blocks in pale pink, just to add a bit of interest, you know? ;-) But now I'm not sure what to do next. I have three different sized blocks, so I think I need to "float" them in some background fabric, but what colour?

I am quite tempted by these gorgeous Sketch fabrics, possibly in Pool, but then again, isn't that just a bit predictable for me? (It is starting to seem like every quilt I make has to have some aqua in it!) Should I go for something a bit different? Maybe the charcoal? Oh, decisions, decisions - help please!

Thursday, 14 June 2012

Well, the stitchiness has carried over into this week and, on Tuesday, I got down on my hands and knees and basted Will's quilt. This is undoubtedly my least favourite part of quilt making, and certain parts of my body are still complaining about it two days later!! But it was done, and the quilting has commenced!

I'm keeping it simple, with lots of "organic" (read: wonky) straight lines, and am about half way done. It's looking good so far - I'm using some lovely Aurifil variegated thread, although I am slightly concerned that I didn't buy enough to finish the quilt and may have to make an additional, emergency purchase!

In other news, I have actually made a start on a new quilt for Joe! There was a slight change of plan, when sir picked out a different space invader to the one I was planning on making, but no problem, and a fit of cutting and sewing followed, and I now have one completed giant space invader block.

Okay, yes I know this one isn't completed, but it gives you an idea of the design and size of it. (I will try and take a proper pic of the finished block to show you next time.) Production has ceased for the time being now though, as I have run out of suitable fabric, and need to wait til payday before I can buy any more! (But I'll try and remember to show you the "alternative" sleeping arrangement we have come up with for J in the meantime...)

Thursday, 07 June 2012

As it is half term this week, I have cleared some of the school stuff away and made room on the dining table for a little bit of stitchy action (kick started, no doubt, by my day out last Saturday). Nothing too exciting, but getting on with some WIP's that have been sitting for a while. First up, I finally pieced the back for Will's quilt, and made some binding using some Pezzy prints in blue and grey,

Once I can find the time (and space) to get this basted there should be no stopping me - once I have got to that stage I usually find that I just want to get the quilt finished asap, so I am hoping that I may be able to get this completed for the second quarter of Rhonda's finish-along, which I think is up at the end of this month. No pressure then!

Then yesterday, I pulled out the scrappy blocks I had made a few months back. As is the way with me, I don't usually have a fixed plan of what a quilt is going to look like, and tend to make it up as I go along. I decided that I probably had enough blocks to be getting on with, for now at least, and started adding a narrow border to each block.

I'm thinking that I will then "float" the blocks in a plain(ish) background, but we'll just see how that goes!

Joe has also started asking for a new quilt, and is quite specific about what he wants, "pacman and space invaders!" (after spotting the FQs seen at the end of this post) so I am starting to think about that too. I am going to have a go at piecing a giant space invader (using this as my inspiration), but again, we'll just wait and see how that goes!

Friday, 11 May 2012

The sun has been shining today for what feels like the first time in ages! I hope it hangs around so we can get out of the house a bit more. Whilst it's very nice not having to go out on the school run in the rain, we do tend to go a bit stir crazy if we're stuck inside because of the weather. I can't believe how quickly the time is whizzing by, I'm afraid I'm going to fob you off with another list, because that's still about all I can manage!

* Last time when I described home-school as feeling "easy" I was really referring to being at home with J all day. The actual teaching/learning bit is a wee bit harder, as I have well and truly learned this week! It has been a little ... trying, shall we say? The things that I want him to do most are all things that he really doesn't want to do at all, and when he doesn't want to do something, he just won't do it! So we had a couple of tricky days when I was pulling my hair out a little, but I decided to chill out a little yesterday and today has been better. I know there will be plenty more ups and downs like that, I guess I just need to keep thinking of the bigger picture. And I still need to work on finding some "me" time as well.

* This morning was a good mail day! First of all was an envelope which I guessed contained my name tag for the Fat Quarterly retreat, but I was slightly flummoxed by the return name & address on the back of the envelope. It had come from "Mandy" in Hampshire, but the only Mandy I knew of in the group lives in Oz! Little did I know that she was already over here, as it was indeed from her!

I absolutely love it!!! I cannot wait to meet Mandy in person, she is a very special blog friend as we share our unusual surname (although I'm fairly sure there is no family connection, but how cool would it be if we discovered there was?)

* I also discovered that the tag I had made has arrived safely with it's new owner, Claudia, and she seems to like it! Big sigh of relief!

* I am starting to panic slightly because I still haven't made my samples for the retreat sample swap. I turned one of my teeny tiny blocks into a pincushion as planned, but it's so small, I'm just not sure that I'm happy with it. So back to the drawing board...

* Also in the mail today was a naughty fabric purchase : a jelly roll of Athill Range by Cabbages & Roses, which was on sale at Simply Solids.

This is going to be turned into a quilt for someone who I really should have made a quilt for by now but haven't. Goodness knows if I'll actually find the time to do it, so watch this space. In the meantime though, I'm enjoying just looking at it, the prints are all so very pretty!

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Hello!

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the world. I love to receive your comments and really do appreciate them. I will try my best to reply but sometimes life just gets in the way! I hope you enjoy your visit. R x